Sweater Update Number One

My progress on the sweater has been a little sporadic.  It's been a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of process (heck, once or twice it was more like two steps back).  I had been accidentally dropping stitches off the edge, so I was unable to pick them back up with a crochet hook.  Several inches of this sweater have been knit at least twice.  

But I have got nearly nine inches worth of sweater and I'm a little less than three inches short of starting to make the armholes.  I'm also only two rows away from getting to start the stripe pattern again.  I'm still a little worried about it being too small, but from the measurement I made of it tonight, I'm slightly less worried than I was before.

With regards to my M1's I have to say that I don't think I ever knew how to do that before and I am totally hooked.  I love seeing the stitches appear out of nowhere and look like nothing happened at all.  Magnifique!

Starting a sweater

On Saturday, I bought the yarn for my newest knitting project (most recently, I made three hats and finished a scarf that I had started in early 2002): a sweater from Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n Bitch which is a lovely stripey thing with raglan sleeves.  

This is the second sweater I've ever attempted.  The first was a disaster (although it was obviously a sweater when I finished, so I suppose it wasn't an unmitigated disaster).  I knit it in France in late 2001 and early 2002.  The biggest problems with it (amongst them a horribly pointy shoulder) were basically caused by the fact that I didn't know what I was doing.  I think I might now (with the help of the aforementioned book).  

With a little help from the ladies at the Village Yarn and Fiber Shop in East Rochester, I picked out the yarns I'll be using for this sweater.  It's a 75% acrylic/25% wool mix.  There were more interesting fibers available in the correct gauge, but not in such pretty colors. I picked out the colors of the sunset: dark red, fuschia, orange and yellow. 

I'm using size 2 (american) needles.  They are the smallest needles with which I have ever knit. I also made my first swatch ever (I told you I didn't know what I was doing as I made the other sweater).  I used the yellow since that's the color that appears least in the sweater.

I even got started knitting and now have a stripe of every color (sorry the close up is dark, but the flash makes it look extremly strange).  I am coming up on my first row where I have to increase pretty soon, so we'll see how well I understand her description of the make one increase (M1) in a little bit. 

Knock-off Banzai Burgers

I have been fascinated recently with freezer cooking (as in making a lot of food ahead of time and freezing it and reheating it later, see for example, 30daygourmet.com).  I saw a recipe for burgers that reminded me of Red Robin's Banzai Burger, but this one had the pineapple mixed in and sweet and sour sauce.  I decided to try something a little closer to the Banzai Burger and went with the following

Knock-off Banzai Burgers

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs. ground beef

1/4 c. teriyaki sauce

1/4 c. bread crumbs

pineapple rings

lettuce

tomato

mayo

cheddar

buns

Directions:

Mix together first three ingredients, form 6 1/4 lb. patties.  Grill pineapple rings and burgers.  Serve with any or all of the other toppings.

I cooked two today, and froze the other four.  I'll comment later about how well they froze.  The flavor is good (we just ate ours plain--no cheese/tomato/lettuce/mayo).  

Football and clam dip

Starting a couple of years ago, our local grocery chain, Wegman's, stopped carrying clam dip.  Matt and I both viewed that as a personal affront, seeing as it is our preferred dip for potato chips.  

Yesterday, for the playoff football games (Go Pats!), we decided to try our hand at making our own clam dip.  

Clam Dip

Ingredients:

1 8 oz pkg neuchatel or cream cheese (thawed)

1/2 c. sour cream (I used light but not nonfat)

2 5.5 oz cans minced clams (we only had one and it wasn't enough)

clam juice  to taste (we used about 4 oz)

worchestershire sauce  to taste (we used about 2 Tbsp)

generous pinch white pepper

2 Tbsp. minced scallions  

Directions:

Put all ingredients except scallions in a medium bowl, and beat using an electric mixer until completely mixed and it has the consistency you'd expect for dip.  Stir in scallions.  Eat with potato chips while watching football.

Welcome!

This is the first of hopefully many posts.  I'm excited to have a place to discuss the things I like other than optics (which is generally what the rest of my website is devoted to).  The plan is to discuss knitting in the winter, gardening in the summer and cooking/baking/eating at all times of year.  Unfortunately for my ability to currently discuss these things, I probably won't cook again until Saturday and I'm on a spending freeze and can't buy yarn until later this month at the earliest.  I do have ambitious plans to make a sweater once I can buy the yarn and needles (smaller than any I currently own) to do so.  

I will mention that I made gnocchi for the first time earlier this week, from Mark Bittman's recipe in How to Cook Everything.  I wasn't super happy with my results the day of (they were a bit slimy) but they reheated really well and were much better on subsequent days.  I think the key may be spending more time making sure that they're thoroughly drained.